Watching TV commercials and soap-operas

Cultural distinctions of the countries are always reflected through the created work in the nation. Throughout centuries culture has been shown through literature, arts and nowadays new forms of created work have been introduced, such as commercials and soap-operas. There is no doubt that commercials and soap-operas don’t show culture the same way as poems, novels, or paintings, but they offer their own peculiar way of reflecting the consciousness of those people who are creating them.

Just like any other creative work, commercials and soap-operas offer their own peculiar view of things and reflect cultural differences of nations. There have been many soap-operas created in the United States and they all show the symbols of moral values which American culture values the most- family, successful career, courage, help for those who are in need, welfare. Even though all the soap-operas have different plots and different characters, they still all reflect the same values which are important for the nation.

The list of soap-operas goes on and on and among the most successful, which have been on TV for a long while, we can name “Beverly Hills 90210”, “Melrose Place”, “Baywatch”, “Santa Barbara”, “Emergency Room”, “Friends” and many others. The topic of friendship can be best-seen in the soap-operas like “Beverly Hills 90210”, “Melrose Place”, “Friends”. Those soap-operas give us an idea about what American people value the most in their lives- the ability to share one’s joy and sorrows with somebody, to communicate, to do things with, to have fun with.

This topic is particularly vital in the United States which is the nation of different cultures and different outlooks, and oftentimes it becomes difficult for people to find somebody to communicate with. There are lots of immigrants who come to live in the United States and even though they find happiness here and can build a successful career, they often are unable to make friends. In their countries, they used to have close relatives and friends from school, college, or any other places where they could communicate with people of the same culture.

When they come to the United States, they have a culture shock and it takes them a while to adapt. For some people, it’s very hard to find friends among Americans in the beginning because they might even not speak English and they close themselves in their community. Another situation when people in the United States might have problems making friends and communicating is migration in the territory of the United States itself. There are many situations when people leave their hometown or even the state where they were born in order to look for a better job.

In other situations, they leave the hometown because they get married or because their job requires them to shift to another city and sometimes even another coast. Of course, it takes all those people a while to make friends in another place and find acquaintances to spend free time with. However, the dream of every person is having somebody to talk to and there is no wonder it’s shown in soap operas. The plot of Beverly Hills covers all the issues connected with friendship and its necessity in the life of a person.

It starts when a family moves from Minnesota to California and of course it becomes quite a new situation for them because they don’t know each other. 2 kids start going to a new school and the movie shows how they make fantastic friends. From that time on throughout the whole soap-opera, the friends whom Brandon and Brenda get from their first days in California, remain their friends for the rest of the movie. In the very beginning, there are lots of misunderstandings and sometimes the characters might act not the way they are supposed to act but overall, the soap-opera shows how they develop as characters.

Of course, in this development a very important role is played by the friends whom Brandon and Brenda get. There is no wonder that people say: tell me who your friend is, and I will tell you who you are. Once you communicate with a certain group of people on a regular basis, you start sharing their values and ideals. Of course, in such a case it becomes very important to choose the right people to communicate with. The characters in the soap-opera pretty much consist of protagonists who, even though they have some weak points, are very good people.

In order to offer a good contrast, some antagonists are introduced in different parts of the movie to show how different they are from the main characters. There are many elements of satire in the soap-opera, and it shows how antagonists have been taught a lesson in many situations. The movie deals with many aspects of American everyday life- it shows at first the realities of an American school, then of the American university and step by step leads the main characters to having an independent future of which every American kid is dreaming. However, just like in real life, characters have to go through many obstacles to achieve their goals.

The realities of job searching are covered so well in the show- when an incredibly intelligent Brandon graduates from the university, he has trouble finding a job because everybody wants a journalist with experience, but after putting in some efforts, he finally gets the job which he has dreamt of. Another aspect of culture which “Beverly Hills 90210” deals with is the dream of every American- having their own house in a beautiful neighborhood like Beverly Hills, having 2 wonderful children who are very smart and who have a happy future ahead of them.

There is such a situation nowadays that many marriages break up because of misunderstandings and kids suffer from that. However, the dream of every American is having a big family which consists of a loving wife and husband and kids who are cherished by the family. The plot of the movie reflects the dreams of every American and makes them realize that this happiness is possible for everybody, he just has to work to achieve that. There are many issues connected with sports in the show and this reflects another aspect of American culture- their love for all kinds of sports events.

From the very beginning, Brandon is playing hockey and he very much enjoys that. There are also many episodes which deal with such kinds of sports as baseball, basketball, swimming, figure-skating. From time to time some new characters are introduced into the movie to show how they are doing the mentioned sports. In the latter parts of the show, Gina is introduced who is a former professional figure-skater and lots of issues connected with professional sports are raised. The show also deals with many problems which American youth has at present times.

One of the issues is connected with drugs and starting with the very first parts of the soap-opera, lots of attention is devoted to this subject. It’s well-known now that many American young people suffer because of drugs and oftentimes they start taking drugs because nobody told them it was very dangerous and they could even die of that or ruin their whole life. The goal of introducing the drug subject into the soap-opera is making those American young people who are watching the movie realize that drugs cannot be taken by them because their dreams can all be ruined owing to that.

One by one some of the main characters go through episodes which are connected with taking drugs and in each of them their desire to live on and to have a happy future wins, so they go to get treatment and finally become healthy again. The same kind of issue is raised about alcohol which is one more problem of American youth. Lots of characters suffer from this addiction, too, but they find strength of character to overcome that.

They show to everybody who is watching the soap-opera that it is very harmful for health to drink lots of alcohol and it’s clear that many people who will watching the movie will think very well before doing something of what the main characters were doing. American culture has many more features which are reflected in different shows. Its brightness, diversity can always offer great subjects for all kinds of created work. In order to get a full idea of a culture and become part of it, one has to study all the areas in which the culture is reflected.